Underdog Blog – Fairfax Criminal Defense Lawyer | Virginia DUI Attorney
Fairfax Criminal Lawyer / Virginia DUI Attorney- Highly-Rated
Pursuing Your Best Defense Since 1991
More on defending drunk driving in Virginia
Image from Virginia Forestry Dept’s website. In Virginia and Washington, D.C., the law says that drivers in those states impliedly consent to have their blood alcohol levels tested if the police have sufficient grounds for seeking such tests. In that regard, here are important relevant Virginia...
Where to Check Speedometer Calibration
Here are some Northern Virginia businesses that have been reported to me as providing speedometer calibration checks. I tend to recommend such checks for clients accused of jailable reckless driving based on excessive speed. This list is a few years old at the time of...
Maintaining calm in the eye of the storm
Some people seek calm by avoiding conflict. I seek to use calmness to harmonize conflict to the advantage of me and my client. By applying the principles of t’ai chi to my practice as a Fairfax criminal lawyer, I do my best neither to chase...
Defending criminal copyright infringement cases
Computer hard drive. (Image from Pacific Northwest Laboratory’s website). According to a posting at lawyer Allan Ellis’s website, the United States Sentencing Commission reports that 94% of federal criminal cases result in guilty pleas. This week, my client and I bucked that trend by proceeding...
Does the First Amendment prohibit convictions for juxtaposing lawful images of children with adult sexual images?
Bill of Rights (From public domain.) NOTE: The following blog entry was written before the awful May 19 Supreme Court decision in U.S. v. Williams (May 19, 2008). This blog entry follows up on my previous discussions of child pornography defense here and here. With the current...
The risks of refusing a test that should be fully refusable
Bill of Rights (From public domain.) Field sobriety tests are junk science administered by cops who have no expertise to administer them, because junk science precludes having expertise. See how poorly is the performance when asking even a fully sober and awake person to follow unfamiliar instructions...
When a Jailer Suffers the Justice System’s Injustices / How Prepared Should a Prosecutor Be?
When I started practicing criminal defense, I spoke with a very experienced criminal defense lawyer who told me that he had never prosecuted, but expected he would love it if he had such a job; this was a variation on a theme of some former...
In praise of Ernie Lewis
Every criminal defense lawyer should attend the National Criminal Defense College’s Trial Practice Institute, known in shorthand as Macon for the program’s location. At least when I attended in 1994, competition for each Macon slot was very high among state-level public defender lawyers. The program sough diversity...
Cross examination publications recommended by Fairfax criminal lawyer
On a trial lawyers’Â listserv recently, a member passed on a law student’s request for publications for learning effective cross examination in criminal cases. While nothing replaces learning cross examination through live training and in the courtroom, some high quality publications do exist, including Larry Pozner’s...
Connecting with our clients, with their fears, and ours
Numerous potential criminal clients’ first words to me include: “This is my first time seeking a lawyer. I’m not sure what I am supposed to discuss,” as if there exists some generic script or information checklist suitable for every lawyer and client and every situation....